I don't have a problem with turning off ventilators and withholding treatment for life-extending purposes if the person in question has no hope of returning to a somewhat meaningful life. I do have a problem with mercy killing if it requires active attempts to deliberately take someone's life. The difference is in the active vs passive methods.

The problems with physician assisted suicide fall into several categories, however the most important problem is probably the least addressed. That would be legal ramifications to allowing this practice to become a "treatment of choice" for terminal illnesses. There are many illnesses that are ultimately incurable and terminal, but with supportive treatment the life expectancy of the victim can be 10 to 15 years or more, years in which a cure might be found. However the treatment is costly. If PAS is allowed insurance companies will insist on it as the least costly treatment of choice and refuse to pay for the more expensive life extending treatments. As long as health insurance is a for profit industry the insurance companies will have their eye on the bottom line with little to no regard for what is best for their subscribers. They want you to pay your premiums as long as you are healthy and when you get sick they want you dead ASAP to minimize their financial exposure. Until and unless the for profit model changes I would say allowing physician assisted suicide is a slippery slope.

As long as health insurance is a for profit industry the insurance companies will have their eye on the bottom line with little to no regard for what is best for their subscribers. They want you to pay your premiums as long as you are healthy and when you get sick they want you dead ASAP to minimize their financial exposure. Until and unless the for profit model changes I would say allowing physician assisted suicide is a slippery slope.

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It's really not so much private insurance companies which are faced with this question, but Medicare. Medicare pays relatively much more in health care dollars than any of the private insurers.

The Terri Schiavo case.....her parents wanted to keep her on the feeding tube and stuff, the husband wanted it terminated.
The husband eventually won, after some court battles.
I know the parents didn't want so see their daughter die...but in my opinion, she wasn't really living......and so I think it was best to take her off life support.
She had been that way for several years.......I didn't see her getting any better.

And I believe if someone wants to be put out of their misery, and end the suffering, they should have the right to say what happens to their body.

The Terri Schiavo case.....her parents wanted to keep her on the feeding tube and stuff, the husband wanted it terminated.
The husband eventually won, after some court battles.
I know the parents didn't want so see their daughter die...but in my opinion, she wasn't really living......and so I think it was best to take her off life support.
She had been that way for several years.......I didn't see her getting any better.

And I believe if someone wants to be put out of their misery, and end the suffering, they should have the right to say what happens to their body.

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I hope the question I'm going to ask is not too personal, if you don't want to answer I completely understand, and apologize in advance for asking.
But why do you have a DNR? I never really understood why someone would.

The Terri Schiavo case.....her parents wanted to keep her on the feeding tube and stuff, the husband wanted it terminated.
The husband eventually won, after some court battles.
I know the parents didn't want so see their daughter die...but in my opinion, she wasn't really living......and so I think it was best to take her off life support.
She had been that way for several years.......I didn't see her getting any better.

And I believe if someone wants to be put out of their misery, and end the suffering, they should have the right to say what happens to their body.

Click to expand...

I hope the question I'm going to ask is not too personal, if you don't want to answer I completely understand, and apologize in advance for asking.
But why do you have a DNR? I never really understood why someone would.

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I'm not the poster you questioned, but I can answer that question.

People who have a DNR order do not want to be rescusitated in the case that they have a cardiac/respiratory arrest. I don't blame them in the least. Rare is the case when a cardiac arrest and subsequent CPR leads to resuming a normal life.

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